Reading: The Lightning Theft
by JaiBrooks1
Summary: Percy and freinds get invited to Olympus to read the lightning theft.
1. Chapter 1

_I'm hoping to make one of these for every book so lets see how this goes. Also reviews equal faster posting so please review. Lastly if you have any ideas for me or suggestions for me I'm open for pretty much anything. Hope you like it. __J_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson. __L_

_Time: Right after The titans curse, but before The battle of the Labyrinth_

_Demigods and Olympians Reading: The lighting theft_

_**It was a normal day at camp half-blood. As normal as a day at camp half-blood could be anyway. Everyone was eating breakfast at the dinning pavilion, when Chiron made and announcement.**_

"_**Would all the head counselors please come to the big house for an emergency meeting now." Chiron said in a calm, yet urgent voice.**_

_**Everyone looked worried, well everyone was worried. This couldn't have been good. Percy Jackson, Katie Gardener, Clarissa La Rue, Annabeth Chase, Michael Yew, Charles Beckendorf, Silena Beauregard, Connor and Travis Stoll, and Castor and Pollux all got up out of their seats and headed away from the pavilion towards the Big House. They all had one thing in common, which was the confused and nervous look they all carried. They all walked up to the Big House into the game room and sat around the ping pong table like usual meetings, but this wasn't a usual meeting and everyone could sense it.**_

"_**Well lets get started, shall we?" Chiron said directing it at the Stoll twins who were seeing how long they could keep a burning pencil up there nose till they got burned. As soon as Chiron said that the twins quickly took the pencils out of their noses and put out the fire. **_

"_**Know down to business. The gods have received a mysterious package filled with five books, three from the past and two from the future."**_

"_**What kind of books?" Travis interrupted.**_

"_**These books are the story of Percy Jackson." Chiron announced. Everyone looked stunned and confused.**_

"_**Where did these books come from?" Clarissa asked.**_

"_**That's what the gods don't know. They have also asked me to bring all of the head counselors to Olympus to read the books with them." He said. Now everyone just looked plain scared. Most demigods have never met their Godly parent and a lot usually don't. So this was a big deal. "Argus will be driving all of us to New York in about ten minutes. So grab what ever you need and we will be on our way." Chiron finished.**_

_**Everyone went to their cabins to grab coats, and to tell their siblings where they were going. They all waited near Thalia's tree till everyone got there, then they all started there decent to the van at the bottom of the hill. They all got loaded into the van, with Chiron and his "wheel chair" in the front seat. Then the camp melted into the distance as the van sped toward Manhattan. It was a quite ride everyone was thinking to themselves, probably fantasizing about meeting their mom or dad.**_

_**A while later the van was unloaded and they all headed for the front desk of the Empire State Building. Everyone looked even more nervous than before. **_

"_**The 600th**__** floor, please." Chiron asked the front desk man. He waved toward an open elevator to the right. Obviously this man knew who he was or at least about Olympus.**_

"_**Thank you" Chiron directed at the front desk man, but he was gone.**_

_**The group loaded into the fairly small elevator, while Chiron pressed a button on the elevator that looked like the Greek Omega sign. Suddenly the elevator jolted upwards so fast people had to hold onto the sides of the elevator. **_

_**DING, sounded the elevator and the doors slid slowly to the sides revealing Olympus. They all stepped out of the elevator, looking up in amazement at the city in the sky. Chiron started forward up the steps and headed toward the building at the top that held the thrones of the gods.**_

_**The group entered the throne room through huge gold doors that could have easily reached twenty feet. As the demigods walked in the gods all gave half-hearted waves and smiles to their children.**_

"_**You are invited here to accompany us while reading these books. For now you all can stay on Olympus till we finish. We thought that these booked could benefit us all sooner or later. Let's start by introducing ourselves." Said Hera, who stood and announced to the group of nervous demigods. The only people that looked calm were Chiron, Percy and Annabeth.**_

"_**Castor and Pollux, sons of Dionysus." The twins echoed.**_

"_**Michael Yew, son of Apollo."**_

"_**Charles Beckendorf, son of Hephesteaus."**_

"_**Silena Beauregard, Daughter of Aphrodite."**_

"_**Clarissa La Rue, Daughter of Ares."**_

"_**Travis and Conner Stoll, sons of Hermes." They both said with a grin, like they pulled off the greatest prank ever.**_

"_**Katie Gardener, Daughter of Demeter."**_

"_**Annabeth Chase, Daughter of Athena." She said with a small half smile to her mom.**_

"_**Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon."**_

"_**I'm sure you know who we all are. So lets get started. Percy you can read first since this book is about you." Hera walked the book over to Percy. Then he opened it up to the first chapter.**_

_**Percy's POV**_

_This would be fun, reading a story about myself. _

"_**I Accidentally Vaporize my Pre-Algebra Teacher," **__I read._

"_This sounds exciting, I have never vaporized any of my teachers." Apollo interjected._

"_You've never had a teacher." Athena said._

"_Hey Percy, I never knew you could read?" Travis interjected._

"_I have never seen you pick up a book." Connor said with an amazed voice._

_Percy was glaring at the Stoll twins as their faces stretched revealing a huge grin. Then Percy continued to read._

_**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**_

_**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is:**_

_**close this book right now. Believe what ever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**_

"_That's not going to work." Hera stated._

"_It will help hide their smell for awhile though." Athena said._

_None of the half-bloods were talking. They were to nervous and scared to say anything at the moment. _

_**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**_

"_You've got that right Percy." Apollo said, while pointing in his direction._

_**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**_

_**But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they **_**sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

"Well no duh Percy. The books named after you." Clarissa said in a mock tone. This was the usual way that her and Percy interacted, my insulting, and fighting.

Percy just ignored this comment and continued reading.

**I'm twelve years old. Until a **_**few **_**months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

"Troubled child?" The Stoll's said while laughing.

**Am I a troubled kid?**

**Yeah. You could say that.**

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

"I hated going on field trips" Said Percy.

**I know—it sounds like torture.**

**Most Yancy field trips were.**

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

Everyone turned to look at Chiron in the back corner of the room seeing if there suspicions would be answered. Chiron nodded, knowing why everyone in the room was staring at him.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

**Boy, was I wrong.**

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway.**

Every one in the room burst into laughter.

"That sounds like something we'd do." Said Connor.

"Is there going to be any action in this. If there isn't I'm leaving." Whined Ares.

"Chill out." Said Apollo.

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

The laughing started all over again.

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover** **in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

"Gross!" Squealed Aphrodite and Silena at the same time touching their hair.

Aphrodite smiled at her daughter thinking about how much they were alike. How much she loved Silena.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled.**

**He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

"Enchilada's are gross." Said Artemis.

"I second that notion." Hermes said with a weird mischievous smile on his face. It was the same look the Stoll's got after they've pulled a prank.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

"Since he told you that you should do something bad, embarrassing or mildly entertaining." Hermes said.

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

"Yes! Please do." Ares said.

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

**"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there.**

"Me too." Ares whined.

**In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"Its older than that." Athena stated.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a **_**stele, **_**for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

"That's disrespectful." Said Hera. "They should listen to Chiron, they have no idea who they are disrespecting."

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

"Know that's my kind of math teacher." Said Ares.

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"Well that doesn't sound good." Said Poseidon.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you **_**shut up**_**?"**

"Yes, please do." Said Hermes

"She does sound very annoying." Aphrodite said.

"Congratulations, I didn't know you knew such a big word." Apollo retorted, chuckling at his own joke.

Silena's face fell she knew how it felt to have people think she was stupid just because she was a daughter of Aphrodite. And it didn't make you feel good.

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

Poseidon, Demeter, Hera, and Hestia all cringed at the mention of them being eaten by their father. It still brought back bad memories for them apparently.

"I'm surprised, your son is not totally stupid." Athena said to Poseidon.

"Hey!" Percy said, feeling wronged.

"Mother." Annabeth said. She was embarrassed her mother had said that.

All of a sudden everyone burst out in laughter.

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied.**

**"And he **_**did **_**this because ..."**

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god,**

**and—"**

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead.**

"Rocks don't taste very good." Travis said.

"Have you eaten a rock?" Beckendorf said, asking the question they all wanted to know.

"It's a long story but, yeah I guess I did." Travis replied.

"Of course he did. That's such a Stoll thing to do." Katie said under her breathe but, everyone heard her anyway. She was usually very quiet, so everyone was shocked to hear her speak.

After they got past the shock they all started laughing. The gods faces just looked confused. Obviously they missed the conversation and felt out of the loop. But nobody filled them in, all the demigods including Chiron were to busy laughing.

**And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"**

"You bet I did." Zeus said.

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

**"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

**Some snickers from the group.**

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

"This girl is very annoying." Said Athena.

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

"You should." Athena said.

"Will you stop insulting my son." Poseidon said, with a stern look.

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

"That would suck, getting eaten by your father." Said Castor.

"Really?" Said Pollux, stating the obvious.

"Dad can you promise you won't eat us." The Stoll twins said, speaking to their father.

"Do you really think I would eat you?" Hermes said with a confused voice. While the rest of the Olympians burst out laughing. Hermes still looked confused. "I promise I won't eat you boys." He finished. The twins were laughing still and so was everyone else.

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

"That's because his eyes are over a thousand years old." Athena stated.

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

"Man Chiron you were hard on him. I don't even know that." Apollo said.

"Seriously, Apollo." Artemis said in a stern voice, staring at her twin brother in disbelief. She couldn't believe he was her brother.

"Oh, come on sis, you ruin all the fun!" Apollo continued.

**"Oh."**

"That's a smart response." Said Athena.

"Will you please stop ripping on my son?" Poseidon said.

"What about ripping?" Ares said. Obviously he wasn't paying attention.

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever **_**lived, **_**and their mother, and what god they worshipped.**

**But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C— in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be **_**as good; **_**he expected me to be **_**better. **_**And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

"There is no excuse you couldn't have made above a C." Said Athena.

"Athena." Poseidon said in a warning tone.

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York State had been weird since Christmas.**

Everyone turned to look at Zeus an Poseidon, who they all knew were responsible for the weather in New York.

"What? I was mad." Zeus said. All the gods started laughing. At that moment they all realized this was the first time they were all together having a good time with their children, even though they were on the other side of the room looking confused and out of it. All the gods were happy, that their children were all there with them. They hadn't seen their children in a long time. Some looked like they were going to pass out.

**We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

Hera looked at both Zeus and Poseidon as if they should be ashamed. Which they found funny and chuckled together.

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

"Even though that girl is annoying, she sure does know how to pickpocket." Hermes said.

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from **_**that **_**school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."**

"I kind of happy you went to hard on me. I actually might have learned something useful in your class Mr. Brunner." Percy said jokingly with a smile.

"Glad I was in your service, Mr. Jackson." Chiron retorted back.

"Woe did Percy just say that he learned something. What is wrong with this world." Annabeth said.

"Yeah I did say that Wise Girl." Percy said.

"Seaweed Brain." Annabeth retorted.

Athena frowned she did not like that her daughter was hanging out with Poseidon's spawn. She didn't like it all. But if it made Annabeth happy then I guess it was okay. Then she shot Percy a look that said be-careful-or-I-will-kill-you-slowly-and-painfully.

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

"Satyr's." Dionysus said. He hated working at that camp with all the little half-blood brats. The only good thing was that he could spend time with his two sons Castor and Pollux.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

"Aww what a nice kid you have Poseidon." Aphrodite said as Hestia nodded at her comment. Percy could feel the blood rushing up to his face. He was embarrassed, that the goddess of love had that in front of all his friends and kind of family.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

"Typical Chiron." Artemis said.

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

"I've tried that before, and it doesn't work very well." Said Travis.

"Of course you guys have, just like seeing how many fire lit pencils you could stick up you nose before your nose would start to burn?" Silena said in a confused, yet playful tone.

"Yeah, pretty much." Said the twins in unison.

"That's my boys." Hermes said. Travis and Connor blushed slightly after having their dad speak to them directly, which was a first.

"Truly two sons of Hermes." Demeter said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hermes asked her.

Demeter nodded to Percy to keep on reading to cut Hermes off so she didn't have to respond to the messenger god.

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

"Water powers dun dedun dun." Apollo said.

"Water powers?" Percy and Poseidon said at the same time.

"Powers you get from the water, duhh." Apollo stated.

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

"There's my boy." Poseidon said.

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

"Well that's not good." Said Demeter.

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

**"—the water—"**

**"—like it grabbed her—"**

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—"**

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

"You should never guess your punishment. It always gets you in more trouble, I should know." Apollo said.

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. **_**I **_**pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

"She's definitely not human." Said Athena.

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But—"**

**"You—**_**will**_—**stay—here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "**_**Now**_**."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

"That girl is really getting on my nerves. Can I turn her into a Dolphin." Said Dionysus.

"No?" We all yelled at him. Then he gave this look that seemed to say your loss, I was just trying to help.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

"Yeah, that's not human." Said Athena.

"Where's the action." Said Ares, like he was delusional.

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

**I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs. Dodd's.**

"Runaway!" Hera said.

"You know your talking to a book. Right?" Zeus said.

"Keep reading." Hera said.

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

"This is not good!" Poseidon said.

Percy was happy that is dad was worried about him. He had never seen his dad worry about him. He thought maybe it was the I am a god so I have to be strong thing, but he just didn't know. It made him feel good.

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.**

"Oh this makes sense now." Athena said thinking out loud. "Never mind me." She finished.

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on **_**Tom Sawyer **_**from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"That would be just like you Percy." Annabeth said as Percy smiled at her.

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

**Then things got even stranger.**

"A FURY! Hades sent a fury after my son." Poseidon said astonished that his brother would do that to him.

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

"Really why did it have to be a fury?" Poseidon said, looking kind of put off.

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

"Who say's honey before they kill someone?" Said Apollo. The thing was no one was paying attention to him. Poseidon was putting finger marks in his thrown while everyone else was staring at the book in astonishment.

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. **_**Hisss!**_

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

"I love Riptide." Percy said.

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

"No magic mushrooms. Your half god duh." Hermes said, stating the obvious.

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

**I said, "Who?"**

**"Our **_**teacher.**_ **Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

"Satyr's are awful liars no wonder Percy didn't believe him." Said Dionysus. The rest of the gods nodded in agreement.

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"That's the end. Who wants to read next?" Percy asked.

"Oh thank the gods no more danger." Said Poseidon, relieved his son was alive.

" I'll read." Said Aphrodite as she got up to get the book from Percy.


	2. Chapter 2

**Like I said before reviews equal faster updates so PLEASE REVIEW! Unfortunately there were no reviews but I had this ready anyway so please tell me what you think. I don't really care what people say good or bad is fine it's your opinion which I value, since you are the readers not I. **

**What I need to work on?**

**Any ideas for the next chapter?**

**Anyone you want to see more of?**

**Is this any good?**

**Should I continue?**

**Anything I'm forgetting?**

**I'm also sorry, I put Percy's POV but I went into third person. So from here on out it is third person.**

**Time: ****Just as a refresher this is right after the titans curse but before the battle of the labyrinth ( I know I really didn't put anything in the last chapter about previous books.)**

**Disclaimer: ****I do not own PJO or anything bellow this in bold print, or the characters, the rest is my ideas.**

**I a few mistakes which I will change:**

**-The Stoll's are not twins Travis is two years older**

**-Also Lee Fletcher would have been counselor at the time not Michael Yew**

**TheIceCubeCancer: Thank you for the advice**

**This chapter goes out to Erra Fawkes13 for being the first review! **

**Chapter 2 **

Aphrodite sat back down in her thrown with the book she had just got from Percy. She flipped to the second chapter and started to read.

"**Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death,"**

"When did you learn how to read." Hephaestus said with joking shock on his face. Aphrodite glared at him for making such of a comment.

Did people really think that she was that dumb?

"I'm not stupid." She said bluntly. All of the gods faces were filled with fake shock. She knew they loved to make fun of her and at the end of the day it was just for fun. Seriously, she didn't like being known as the dumb goddess.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly.**

**This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

"How is he still letting the mist affect him after that?" Athena asked.

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodd's reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

"That's because they did think I was psycho." Percy muttered under his breathe.

"That would have been funny to see." Apollo said, trying to imagine what it would be like to see that situation.

**It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodd's had never existed.**

**Almost.**

**But Grover couldn't fool me.**

"Satyr's are awful liars." Said Hera.

**When I mentioned the name Dodd's to him, he would hesitate, and then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

Everyone started laughing.

"Grover is an awful lair, he never was very good." Said Annabeth. Zeus winced at the mention of Grover the satyr. He was the same satyr that got his daughter turned into a tree. Okay maybe he turned her into a tree but he was supposed to protect her and that's why she turned into a tree.

**Something was going on. Something **_**had **_**happened at the museum.**

"Well no duh, Peter Johnson." Dionysus said.

Percy ignored this comment knowing Mr. D would never, ever get his name right. But his father did not ignore this though.

"It's Percy Jackson." Poseidon said in a stern voice warning Dionysus to get his sons name right.

"What ever" he said.

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodd's with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

"Seriously Zeus?" Hera complained. "Don't take it out on the mortals."

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from D's to F's.**

"You should really try in class." Athena said.

"I did." he replied. Athena just gave me a disapproving look.

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends.**

"In a fight with girls? Really? Poseidon your son is such a wimp." Complained Ares, getting ready to burst into laughter.

"Hey!" Percy said.

"Watch it Ares." Poseidon said in a stern, yet warning voice.

**I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

The whole room burst into laughter as Aphrodite read.

"That doesn't make any sense. Sot means chronic or habitual drinker? No wonders why you failed English" Annabeth said.

"I didn't know what it meant, don't blame me." Said Percy in a defending tone. Truthfully he was kind of scared of Annabeth, with those grey stormy eyes.

"Continue." Said Artemis.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick**

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side,**

"Awwww" All of the girls in the room crooned in unison.

"He's so sweet, he misses his mom." Hera said

"Yuck." Dionysus complained.

**Even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

Poseidon winced at the mention of Gabe, Percy's step father. How he longed to be with Percy and Sally.

**And yet… there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods outside my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange.**

**I was worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

"Grover's stronger than he looks." Annabeth said.

**I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

Chiron smiled at this. He knew Percy could do great all along and he already has.

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.**

"Oh no." Said Athena. Everyone burst out laughing at this comment. She was so worried with how Percy did on his tests.

**I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-or-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the **_**Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology **_**across my dorm room.**

Annabeth and Athena looked at Percy with disgust. They both thought about how someone could treat a book that way.

**Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon,**

"How can you get them confused? They are two totally different people." Apollo asked a little confused with what was just read.

"He means the spelling, like which name goes with one." Hermes said. " Duh"

**Or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

Selena shivered thinking how gross that would be. I mean it couldn't be healthy or safe. Could it?

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. **_**I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**_

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before**

**Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

"He so sweet." Hera crooned under her breathe.

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said,**

"… **worried about Percy, sir."**

**I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"Not normally and eavesdropper?" Apollo said. "Yeah right."

**I inched closer.**

"… **alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the **_**school**_**! Now that we know for sure, and **_**they **_**know too—"**

"**We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

"**But he may not have time. The summer solstice dead line—"**

"Summer solstice dead line?" Hermes said. " Oh I got it now. Okay keep going."

The Olympians were shaking their heads in disgust. In a how could he have forgotten that kind of way.

"**Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

"**Sir, he **_**saw**_** her… ."**

"**His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

"**Sir, I … I can't fail in my duties again."**

"I thought I was going crazy." Percy stated.

**Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

"**You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—"**

"Is there going to be action now?" Ares asked. He was still annoyed that there was no action in the book yet.

"Calm down, you sound like my brother." Artemis stated bluntly.

"Is that a bad thing?" Apollo asked his sister. He felt kind of offended by his sister.

"Keep reading." She urged Aphrodite. At the same time a wave of chuckles submerged the room.

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

"Your not a very good eavesdropper Percy." Hermes said. "You never give up your location, that's rule number one in eavesdropper one-o-one."

"I guess I should keep my day job then?" Percy asked.

"Yes, yes you should." Hermes said bluntly

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

"Your going to get caught." Demeter crooned.

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow **_**clop-clop-clop,**_** like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, and then moved on.**

"Chiron rule number one in hiding your horse body one-o-one, don't let the boy see your horse body." Hermes also said, to Chiron.

"I'll take that into consideration next I make a house call." Chiron laughed.

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

"**Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn …"**

"**Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

"**Don't remind me."**

Chiron chuckled under his breathe remembering the moment. Grover had been studying so hard for his exams, he thought.

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office. **

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

"**Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

"**You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

"**Just… tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression.**

"That was a stupid thing to say, satyrs can read peoples emotions." Annabeth said.

"I didn't know that then." Percy said a little annoyed.

**And started getting ready for bed.**

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

"To bad it was all real." Clarissa said. She remembered when she came to camp half-blood, how she didn't want to believe that all this Greek stuff was feel.

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kid of danger.**

"Way to state the obvious Percy." Travis said poking his younger brother Connor's arm.

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,**

All of the demigods groaned, they all hated exams or even tests. The words, for all of them seemed to float off the page the more they tried to concentrate.

**My eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

"**Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's … it's for the best."**

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

"Can I blast that girl, she really is bugging me?" Ares asked to my surprise.

"I wouldn't mind." Said Percy.

But of course that didn't happen and Percy was disappointed. He really didn't like Nancy.

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

"**I mean …" Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

Poseidon gave Chiron a disapproving look. He didn't like his son feeling bad. Even though he wasn't the best of fathers, he still cared about his kids, even if they didn't think so.

**My eyes stung.**

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

Chiron winced at this part.

"**Right," I said, trembling.**

"**No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say … you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—"**

"Wimp" Clarissa muttered under her breathe while Percy gave her a warning stare.

"**Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

"**Percy—"**

**But I was already gone.**

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were **_**rich**_** juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

"I don't think I enjoy being called a nobody." Poseidon said with a smile.

"Sorry." Percy said smiling at his dad, who just happened to be the Greek god Poseidon.

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

"**Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

"Not really." Crooned Aphrodite.

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had,**

"What a coincidence?" Said Apollo.

**So there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen.**

**Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

"Way to scare the shit out of a satyr, Percy." Hermes congratulated him.

"Thank you." Percy said staring at Hermes with a huge grin on his face.

Lee Fletcher coughed trying to hide his laughter, along with most of the people in the room.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

"Rule number two in eavesdropping one-o-one, never admit that you were eavesdropping. And I mean never." Hermes said.

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much **_**did**_** you hear?"**

"**Oh … not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

"Way to freak him out even more." Apollo stated.

**He winced. "Look, Percy … I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"**

"I say again satyr's are awful liars especially this one." Dionysus said like he was bored out of his mind.

.

"**Grover—"**

"**And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodd's, and …"**

"I repeat, bad liars." Dionysus said again.

"**Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer."**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

_**Grover Underwood**_

_**Keeper**_

_**Half-Blood Hill**_

_**Long Island, New York**_

_**(800) 099-0009**_

"Seriously Dionysus, script writing for a dyslexic." Artemis scolded.

"It's funny to watch them try and read them." Mr. D said laughing while looking back at memories of demigods reading those cards.

"**What's Half—"**

"**Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um … summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

"**Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or …or if you need me."**

**Why would I need you?"**

"Mansion?" Demeter questioned.

Aphrodite continued reading.

"**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me.**

**And here he was acting like he was the one who defended **_**me**_**.**

"**Grover," I said, "What exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under out feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs.**

"Eggs are gross." Connor said.

" I second that notion." Hermes and Travis said with grins on there faces. Hermes was staring at his sons realizing how much they really were alike.

"Oh no, not two more Hermes minions." Aphrodite said jokingly.

**The driver cursed and steered the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

Demeter perked her ears up at the mention of plants. She loved plants, they were so nice and green she thought.

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

"I have a feeling this isn't good." Athena said.

"Wait are those the fates?" Poseidon asked. Everyone in the room nodded silently and looked gloomy. "Please don't cut the string." Poseidon muttered under his breathe while making notches in his throne with his nails.

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

Everyone in the room started muttering and hoping that things would end up okay for the son of Poseidon even if they already knew what happened.

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

"Oh please tell me they weren't really looking at him." Poseidon stated sounded a little sick to his stomach.

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

"**Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"**

"**Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

"That is another way to scare the lights out of a satyr." Apollo said.

"**Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"Not funny Percy." Annabeth warned Percy.

"**Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears.**

"ughhhh" Poseidon groaned.

**I heard Grover catch his breath.**

"**We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

"**What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

"**Come on!" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear the **_**snip**_** across four lanes of traffic.**

Everyone turned to Percy and looked saddened. The whole room was silent at this point, nobody was brave enough to speech up at this point.

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

"**Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

"Let me tell you this, it isn't the flu." Athena stated bluntly.

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

"**Grover?" **

"**Yeah?"**

"**What are you not telling me?"**

"A lot of stuff. I can tell you that." Lee said facing Percy with a smile.

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

"**You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like … Mrs. Dodd's, are they?"**

"Nope." Annabeth said, popping the p.

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodd's. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

"**The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older.**

Poseidon groaned again. His brother Zeus who had been quiet all this time put a hand on his brothers shoulder. This was a strange act considering the brothers didn't get along to well.

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

"**Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

"**This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like last time."**

"**What last time?"**

"**Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

"**Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

"**Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could. **

"**Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

"**Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"That's the end of the chapter." Aphrodite announced. "Who wants to read next." She finished.

"I will." Apollo said. "Man I love your son he is so cool."

Percy blushed at this comment. At this time Apollo was handed the book and flipped it open to the next chapter.

**So what did you think? Love it? Hate it? Suggestions are welcome.**

**REMEMBER:**

**MORE REVIEWS = FASTER UPDATE**

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	3. Chapter 3

**So here is the next chapter. I'm sorry I didn't update faster, I kind of am writing 3 stories at the moments. But spring break is next week so I should get a lot of writing done but, my grandma does not have internet so I will write but I will update when I get home (22****nd****). Thank you for all the reviews. Please try and give some advice or ideas in your reviews because I want to know what you like and don't like.**

**REVIEWS = FAST UPDATE**

**NO REWIEWS= SLOW UPDATE**

**Lets try and get 20 reviews this week. I only need 8 more reviews. ****J**

**So here I go!**

**DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT RICH RIORDAN. DUH. SO I DO NOT OWN PJO! GOT IT.**

**Chapter 3**

The book was passed around the throne room all the way to Apollo. He grabbed the book and opened it with a smile to chapter three. With a slight chuckle he read the title of the chapter.

"**Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants."** He said with another laugh, and as he laughed a wave of laughs exploded through the room.

"Great way to lose your pants." Hermes muttered.

It took awhile but everyone slowly began to stop laughing. Then Apollo started reading again.

"**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal."**

"That was rude." Hera said with a disgruntled look.

"**I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering 'Why does this always happen?' and 'Why does it always have to be sixth grade?**'"

"Ughh, is there anytime your not in danger." Poseidon said in the direction of his son.

"No, not really. Its kind of become the norm." Percy said to his father. He was kind of glad that his dad was nervous, about his sons safety.

"**When he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, and made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

**'East One-Hundred-and-fourth and First,' I told the driver.**

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world,**'"

"Aw, he's so sweet." Aphrodite crooned at Percy.

At the mention of Sally's name, Poseidon smiled and thought about the love of his life.

"**'Which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.'**"

"That is true, but usually demigods just have bad luck anyway." Hermes said, thinking of his son Luke and what his fate is.

"True, I wish this bad luck would get rid of some of them though." Dionysus said under his breathe.

"**'Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma."**

"I should make sure she goes to college, she sounds like a deserving person." Athena said thinking out loud.

"Thank you." Poseidon said to Athena, in a grateful voice.

"**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad**."

Poseidon smiled at the mention of Sally and him thinking of all the good times. He missed Sally.

"**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. My mom doesn't talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures. See, they weren't married."**

"Aww" The girls in the room signed.

"**She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.**

**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**"

"That's kind of true." Hermes said with a dazed semi-paying attention look.

"**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**"

"Okay, she definitely needs my help." Athena said.

"**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano,"**

"Ugh" Percy groaned at the mention of his late step father.

"What?" Apollo asked.

"You'll see." Percy said in a I'm-not-looking-forward-to-this kind of way. At the same time Poseidon winced at the thought of Gabe.

"**Who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk." **

Percy shook is head, then smiled at the thought of Gabe in some art museum somewhere as a statue. Then everyone gave him a strange look.

"You'll understand at the end." He said smiling.

"**When I was young, I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe."**

"That's not a nice nickname." Artemis said.

"**I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts."**

"Ew, that's not a good smell. We should know." Travis said.

"You would." Katie Gardener said in response.

"**Between the two of us,"**

"**We made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I go along…well, when I came home is a good example. **

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet. **

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, 'So, you're home.'**"

"Well that's a nice way to welcome your step son, home." Demeter said.

"**'Where's my mom?' **

**'Working,' he said. 'You got any cash?'**"

"You don't ask your step son for gambling money. Can I blast this man?" Apollo asked.

"No need." Said Percy. After that everyone gave him a strange look except for Annabeth who knew the story.

"**That was it. No **_**Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been that last six months?**_

**Gabe put on weight.**"

"**He looked like a tusk less walrus in thrift-store clothes."**

"Oh no thrift store clothes!" Silena and Aphrodite yelled, appalled the idea of a thrift store.

"**He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something."**

Almost everyone in the room gave grossed and sorry looks to Percy for having to live with that man.

"**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always the beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our 'guy secret.' Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out. **

**'I don't have any cash,' I told him."**

Poseidon winced at the treatment of his son. He just wished he could have done something to help his son.

"**He raised a greasy eyebrow. **

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else."**

Everyone stifled a laugh, but tried to hide it.

"**'You took a taxi from the bus station,' he said. 'Probably paid him with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he out to carry his own weight."**

"Now he is really bugging me." Surprisingly it was Hera, who didn't really care for young hero's.

"I agree"

"Me too"

"Me three"

"Let's blast him."

All sorts of these comments swept through the room creating a tidal wave effect.

"**'Is that right, Eddie?' **

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a tinge of sympathy. 'Come on, Gabe,' he said. 'The kid just got here.' **

"At least one these men is semi-decent." Said Zeus with sympathy.

"I really doubt it.." Said, Demeter.

**'Am I **_**right**_**?" Gabe repeated. **

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony. **

**'Fine,' I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. 'I hope you lose.' **

**'Your report card came, brain boy!' he shouted after me. 'I wouldn't act so snooty!' **

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's 'study'**"

"Study? I don't think he does a lot of studying." Said Athena. Who was probably right since she is the goddess of wisdom.

"**He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines,, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer."**

"How gross can one person be." Silena stated.

"You didn't see him after he exercised." Percy said putting finger quotations on the work exercise. It really was an awful sight.

"Okay. Maybe that is worse." She said gagging trying to imagine the sight of Smelly Gabe getting worse.

"**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home. Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodd's, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn."**

"Oh, I get it now." Athena yelled. She was thinking ahead as usual.

"Get what?" Everyone exclaimed.

"Never mind it will probably be explained later." She stated. Then everyone's faces fell looking disgruntled, they didn't want to wait, they all wanted to know now.

"**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic-how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone-something-was looking at me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**"

"That's because something probably is." Poseidon said with a worried expression, that seemed plastered to his face lately.

"**Then I heard my mom's voice. 'Percy?' **

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted. **

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change colors in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe. **

Poseidon smiled. Sally really was that nice. He had never seen or heard her raise her voice ever.

**'Oh, Percy.' She hugged me tight. 'I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!' **

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of 'free samples.' The way she always did when I came home."**

"Free samples?" The Stoll's said in unison. Now they were suddenly interested in the story.

"**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour string, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing alright?"**

"**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her."**

Annabeth punched him in the arm, as Percy's face flushed a darker color of pink.

"**From the other room, Gabe yelled, 'Hey, Sally-how about some bean dip, huh?'**"

"I swear if he does anything else…." Ares said. Obviously he was annoyed with Gabe at this point.

"**I gritted my teeth. **

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not some jerk like Gabe. For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started chocking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit didn't seem so bad."**

"So sweet." Aphrodite hummed to herself.

"**Until that trip to the museum… **

**'What?' my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. 'Did something scare you?'**"

"Nothing at all just a fury that's all." Apollo said.

"**'No, Mom' **

**I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodd's and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**"

Annabeth just stood there staring at Percy. "How were you still letting the mist effect you like that?" She asked.

"I don't know." He said bluntly.

"**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me. **

**'I have a surprise for you,' she said. 'We're going to the beach.' **

**My eyes widened. 'Montauk?' **

**'Three nights-same cabin' **

**'When?' **

**She smiled. 'As soon as I get changed.' **

**I can't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money."**

"**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, 'Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?'**"

Poseidon glared at the book. He didn't like Gabe and how he treated Sally and Percy.

"**I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here."**

"Thank us, Gabe will be out of this book." Ares said.

"Agreed" Stated Poseidon.

"**'I was on my way, honey,' she told Gabe. 'We were just talking about the trip.' **

**Gabe's eyes got small. 'The trip? You mean you were serious about that?' **

**'I knew it,' I muttered. 'He won't let us go.' **

**'Of course he will,' my mom said evenly. 'Your step father is just worried about money. That's all. Besides,' she added, 'Gabe won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

"That sounds rather gross." Demeter said. And she usually liked dips.

"**Gabe softened a bit. 'So this money for your trip…it comes from your cloths budget, right?**"

"Clothes budget. There should have never been a clothes budget in the first place, you can't put a budget on clothes." Aphrodite said. Clearly her and Silena were both disgusted by this budget.

"**'Yes, honey,' my mother said. **

**'And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back.' **

**'We'll be very careful.' **

**Gabe scratched his double chin. 'Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip…And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game.' **

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week."**

The room burst into laughter while Percy blushed a bit remembering that would be one of the last times he saw Gabe in human form.

"**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad. Why did she care what he thought?"**

"She's protecting you." Annabeth said.

"I know that now." Percy retorted in a matter of factly voice.

"**'I'm sorry,' I muttered. 'I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now.' **

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement."**

A wave of laughter went through the room again. Nobody liked Gabe and they were glad he would be out of the book soon.

"**'Yeah, whatever,' he decided. **

**He went back to his game. **

**'Thank you, Percy,' my mom said. 'Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about…whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?' **

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes-the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride-as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air. **

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip. **

**An hour later we were ready to leave. **

**Gabe took a break form his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking-and more important, his '78 Camero-for the whole weekend. **

**'Not a scratch on this car, brain boy,' he warned me as I loaded the last bag. 'Not one little scratch.'**"

"That didn't happen." Percy said to himself.

"**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me. **

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement towards Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it shacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon. Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to fine out.**"

"Seriously, I wish we saw that." Connor said.

"That would have been hilarious." Travis continued.

"**I got in the Camero and told my mom to step on it. **

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spider in the cabinets,"**

Poseidon smiled remembering the time he had spent in that some cabin with Sally, the love of his life. That cabin had some of his best memories in it.

"**And most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in. I loved the place."**

"Is the sea ever too cold for a son of Poseidon." Hera asked.

"Apparently." Hermes stated.

"**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad."**

"How fitting the sea god met his gal at the beach." Apollo chuckled.

Percy was a little red now. The gods were now talking about his mother.

"**As we got closet to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappeared from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea. **

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work. **

**I guess I should explain the blue food."**

"Ya, think. I am so confused." Hermes said.

"**See, Gabe once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and bought home blue candy from the shop. This-along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano-was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me."**

"A bit?" Annabeth questioned. While Percy just gave her a glare which see deflected with ease.

"**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop."**

"I am so going to help her." Athena stated again.

"**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk-my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same thing she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them. **

**'He was kind, Percy,' she said. 'Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes.' **

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. 'I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud.' **

**I wonder how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years. **

**'How old was I?' I asked. 'I mean…when he left?' **

**She watched the flames. 'He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin.' **

**'But…he knew me as a baby.' **

**'No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

"I did visit you once you know. Your mother didn't know though. And by the way I am very proud of you Percy." Poseidon said to his son.

"I know that now." Percy said with a huge smile on his face.

"**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember…something about my father. A warm glow. A smile."**

"See that was my visit." Poseidon said.

"**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me… **

**I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom."**

Percy frowned at this, he should have never resented his dad but. Now he knew that it wasn't his choice it was law that he couldn't see him.

"Ocean Voyage?" Dionysus said confused.

"That was the story my mom told me." Percy filled in.

"**He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe. **

**'Are you going to send me away again?' I asked her. 'To another boarding school?' **

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire. **

**'I don't know, honey.' Her voice was heavy. 'I think…I think we'll have to do something.'**

**'Because you don't want me around?'**"

"Harsh a bit." Hera said.

"**I regretted the words as soon as they were out."**

"You should." She continued while Percy's dad gave her a glare and she stopped what she was going to say after that.

"**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. 'Oh, Percy, no. I-I **_**have**_** to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away.' **

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said-that it was best for me to leave Yancy. **

**'Because I'm not normal?' I said. **

**'You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy.**"

"We're all not normal. Deal with it." Clarisse Said.

"No really, normal people just walk around shooting up water and growing plants?" Travis said, chuckling to himself. Then Connor and the rest of the demigods joined in. Even some of the gods cracked a smile at this.

"**'But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe.' **

**'Safe from what?'**"

"From me." Announced someone entering through the back of the room. To everyone's surprise it was Hades. "I heard you guys were reading a book, so naturally I had to come and listen."

"Always likes to make and entrance. Instead of being gods of underworld, sky and sea you should be gods of theater." Apollo said, but then stopped because he was getting nasty glares from the big three. So he continued reading.

"**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me-all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget. **

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head."**

"Cyclopes?" Annabeth asked.

"I don't know maybe now that I think about it." Percy said.

"**Before that-a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands."**

"Like Hercules." Chiron stated.

"**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move. **

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodd's at the museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end out trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**"

"So mom I am going to die soon, but can we stay at the beach longer." Hermes joked.

"**'I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could,' my mom said. 'They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy-the place your father wanted to send you. And I just…I just can't stand to do it.'**"

"That's what usually gets the little brats killed." Dionysus said gloomily. "Not that I object." He finished.

"**'My father wanted me to go to a special school?' **

**'Not a school,' she said softly. 'A summer camp.' **

**My head was swimming. Why would my dad-who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born-talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hasn't she ever mentioned it before? **

**'I'm sorry, Percy,' she said, seeing the look in my eyes. 'But I can't talk about it. I-I couldn't send you to that place, it might mean saying good-bye to you for good.' **

**'For good? But if it's only a summer camp…' **

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.'**"

"So I'm guessing your not going to ask anymore questions." Said one of the Stoll's I just couldn't catch which one.

"**That night I had a vivid dream. **

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf.**"

Everyone stared at the two brothers Zeus and Poseidon. They were just smiling sheepishly.

"**The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagle's wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**"

"Voice?" Athena asked, but nobody responded.

"**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them form killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, **_**No!**_

**I woke with a start. **

**Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery. **

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, 'Hurricane.' **

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow. An angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**"

. "You guess are so dramatic." Hermes said.

"**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice-someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door."**

"**My mother sprang out of the bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock. **

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't…he wasn't exactly Grover."**

"Who else could it be?" Demeter questioned.

"You'll see." Percy said.

"**'Searching all night,' he gasped. 'What were you thinking?' **

**My mom looked at me in terror-not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come. 'Percy,' she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. 'What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?' **

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

**'**_**O Zeus kai alloi theoi!' **_**he yelled. 'It's right behind me! Didn't you **_**tell**_** her?' **

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on-and where his legs should be…where his legs should be…**"

Laughing erupted once again at the mention of Grover pant less

"**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: '**_**Percy**_**. Tell me **_**now**_**!' **

"You mom is always so calm about everything." Annabeth stated. "I love her."

Poseidon smiled at this. But Athena frowned a bit. She had never had Annabeth tell her she loved her.

"Me too." Percy laughed.

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodd's, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning. **

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said. 'Get to the car. Both of you. **_**Go!**_**" **

**Grover ran for the Camero-but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked. **

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves."**

"Duh, he is a satyr." Dionysus said.

"And we are done. Who wants to read next?" Apollo asked.

"I will" Said Zeus. "But I think we should stop for lunch first."

"Yes, food." Apollo and Hermes both exclaimed. And so everyone headed out of the throne room heading to where the smell of food was coming from.

**So there it is. Sorry I didn't update in so long I had spring break yeah, and tons of homework. So like usual.**

**REVIEWS = UPDATES**

**NO REVIEWS= NO UPDATES**

**LOVE YA (IN THE MOST NON CREEPY WAY)**


	4. Chapter 4 AN

**Okay so the next chapter will be up in a few days at least by Monday. I am so sorry it took so long. We had a 15 page autobiography like tons of tests and a huge social project, spring break. I know excuses, excuses so, it will be up soon. Also take a look at my other stories cus there is a contestish thing with two so if you want you can have your own character put in. Also if you know of any good beta's I'm looking to get one so. Any ideas? Thank you so much for reading.**

**Love,**

**Katy7998**


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